Wilhelm Bantelmann

Wilhelm "Willi" Bantelmann was born on 12 June 1906 in Hannover, Germany. Little is currently known about his musical education. In 1941 he was Kapellmeister at the Mellini-Theater in Hannover.
Around the same year Bantelmann moved to Mährisch-Ostrau (now Ostrava, Czech Republic), where he became musical director at the Stadttheater. During the following years he conducted numerous operatic and symphonic performances and played an active role in the German musical life of the city. Among the concerts conducted by him were programmes devoted to Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner as well as performances of works by contemporary composers.
In 1943 Bantelmann completed his opera "Der König von Rothenburg". The work was accepted for performance at the Stadttheater Mährisch-Ostrau and was intended to open the 1943/44 season under the composer's own direction.
After the Second World War Bantelmann worked as Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Zeitz. In 1948 he became first operetta conductor at the Städtische Theater Chemnitz, where he conducted numerous operetta productions. He subsequently worked at the Stadttheater Crimmitschau.
In 1955 Bantelmann became musical director of the Stadttheater in Brandenburg an der Havel and chief conductor of its orchestra, today known as the Brandenburger Symphoniker. He held this position during the 1955/56 season.
In later years Bantelmann apparently returned to the Hannover region. He was still active as a composer in 1978, when he wrote his "Europa-Festmarsch" for symphonic wind orchestra. One secondary source gives 1985 as the year of his death, apparently in the Hannover region, but the exact date and place of his death have not yet been verified.

It is little known about the compositions by Wilhelm Bantelmann. An "Europa-Lied, for chorus" and the song "Heiligenhafen am schönen Ostseestrand" were published, and he composed the opera "König von Rothenburg" in 1943 as well as an opera "Walpurgisnacht".

I own the autograph manuscript of the composition "Europa-Festmarsch, for symphonic wind orchestra" (1978).